Gelatinous cube
Encyclopedia
A gelatinous cube is a fictional monster
from the Dungeons & Dragons
fantasy
role-playing game
. It is described as a ten-foot cube of transparent gel
atinous ooze
, which is able to absorb organic matter.
, and first appeared in the Monster Manual
(1977), rather than being lifted from outside sources and adapted to a roleplaying setting, as were many mythological
monsters like the minotaur
and dryad
.
Being a cube that is a perfect ten feet on each side, it is specifically and perfectly "adapted" to its native environment, the standard, 10 feet (3 m) by 10 feet (3 m) dungeon corridors which were ubiquitous in the earliest Dungeons & Dragons modules, particularly the randomly-generated ones created using the rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide
.
of mindless, gelatinous matter in the shape of a cube
. It slides through dungeon corridors, absorbing everything in its path, digesting everything organic and secreting non-digestible matter in its wake. Contact with its exterior can result in a paralyzing electric shock, after which the cube will proceed to slowly digest its stunned and helpless prey.
Reproduction is through a form of asexual 'budding', in which a smaller, stub cube is left behind in a side corridor to grow into a full-sized cube, although these stub cubes run the risk of being absorbed by their own parent on its next trip down the corridor. Scholars have determined that juvenile gelatinous cubes grow to fit their own natural environment, adapting their exterior proportions to the size of the corridors they most commonly sweep.
Gelatinous cubes typically live underground.
Monster
A monster is any fictional creature, usually found in legends or horror fiction, that is somewhat hideous and may produce physical harm or mental fear by either its appearance or its actions...
from the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
. It is described as a ten-foot cube of transparent gel
Gel
A gel is a solid, jelly-like material that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady-state...
atinous ooze
Ooze (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, an ooze is a type of creature. This category includes such monsters as slimes, jellies, deadly puddings, and similar mindless, amorphous blobs...
, which is able to absorb organic matter.
Creative origins
The gelatinous cube is an invention of Gary GygaxGary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
, and first appeared in the Monster Manual
Monster Manual
The Monster Manual is the primary bestiary sourcebook for monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It includes monsters derived from mythology, and folklore, as well as creatures created for D&D specifically...
(1977), rather than being lifted from outside sources and adapted to a roleplaying setting, as were many mythological
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
monsters like the minotaur
Minotaur (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, minotaurs are a race of monstrous humanoids, resembling bull-human hybrids. Many minotaurs worship the demon lord Baphomet.-Dungeons & Dragons :...
and dryad
Dryad (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the dryad is a fey creature based upon the dryad of Greek mythology. They are tree spirits with the forms of beautiful women who benevolently protect forests and woodlands...
.
Being a cube that is a perfect ten feet on each side, it is specifically and perfectly "adapted" to its native environment, the standard, 10 feet (3 m) by 10 feet (3 m) dungeon corridors which were ubiquitous in the earliest Dungeons & Dragons modules, particularly the randomly-generated ones created using the rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide
Dungeon Master's Guide
The Dungeon Master's Guide is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons...
.
Ecology
A gelatinous cube looks like a transparent oozeOoze (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, an ooze is a type of creature. This category includes such monsters as slimes, jellies, deadly puddings, and similar mindless, amorphous blobs...
of mindless, gelatinous matter in the shape of a cube
Cube
In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. The cube can also be called a regular hexahedron and is one of the five Platonic solids. It is a special kind of square prism, of rectangular parallelepiped and...
. It slides through dungeon corridors, absorbing everything in its path, digesting everything organic and secreting non-digestible matter in its wake. Contact with its exterior can result in a paralyzing electric shock, after which the cube will proceed to slowly digest its stunned and helpless prey.
Reproduction is through a form of asexual 'budding', in which a smaller, stub cube is left behind in a side corridor to grow into a full-sized cube, although these stub cubes run the risk of being absorbed by their own parent on its next trip down the corridor. Scholars have determined that juvenile gelatinous cubes grow to fit their own natural environment, adapting their exterior proportions to the size of the corridors they most commonly sweep.
Gelatinous cubes typically live underground.
Alignment
Gelatinous cubes, being mindless, are always neutral.Original Dungeons & Dragons
- Dungeons & Dragons "white box" setDungeons & Dragons (1974)The original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson was published by TSR, Inc. in 1974. It initially included the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game...
(1974), - GreyhawkGreyhawk (supplement)Greyhawk is a supplementary rulebook written by Gary Gygax and Robert J. Kuntz for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game...
(1975), the first supplement to the "white box".
Dungeons & Dragons (Basic, Expert etc)
- Dungeons & Dragons Basic SetDungeons & Dragons Basic SetThe original Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set boxed set was first published by TSR, Inc. in 1977, and comprised a separate edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, distinct from the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, which was initially published in the same...
(1977, 1981, 1983). - Dungeons & Dragons Rules CyclopediaDungeons & Dragons Rules CyclopediaThe Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia was published by TSR, Inc. in 1991, as a continuation of the basic edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, which ran concurrently with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Its product designation was TSR 1071...
(1991)
First edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
- Monster ManualMonster ManualThe Monster Manual is the primary bestiary sourcebook for monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It includes monsters derived from mythology, and folklore, as well as creatures created for D&D specifically...
(1977) - DragonDragon (magazine)Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#124 (August 1987), "The Ecology of the Gelatinous Cube".
Second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
- Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989).
- Monstrous Manual (1993), under the "ooze/slime/jelly" heading.
Third edition Dungeons & Dragons
- Monster Manual (2000), under the oozeOoze (Dungeons & Dragons)In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, an ooze is a type of creature. This category includes such monsters as slimes, jellies, deadly puddings, and similar mindless, amorphous blobs...
entry. - The 3.5 edition revised Monster Manual (2003), also under the ooze entry.
In other media
- In Ultima IUltima IUltima, later known as Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness or simply Ultima I, is the first game in the Ultima series of computer role-playing games. It was first published in the United States by California Pacific Computer Company, which registered a copyright for the game on September 2, 1980...
a gelatinous cube is commonly encountered in the dungeon levels. - In Castle of the WindsCastle of the WindsCastle of the Winds is a tile-based roguelike computer game for Windows 3.x. It was developed by SaadaSoft and published by Epic MegaGames in 1989.-Release history:...
there is a "gelatinous glob" creature whose sprite showed that the monster was cubical. - In the virtual pet game Psypets, the gelatinous cube is one of the many monsters the player's pet can defeat.
- On the NeopetsNeopetsNeopets is a virtual pet website that was launched by Adam Powell and Donna Williams on November 15, 1999. Two years after the web site was launched, Adam Powell and Donna Williams sold a majority share to a consortium of investors led by Doug Dohring. On June 20, 2005, Viacom bought Neopets, Inc...
website, there are jelly blobs named "gelatinous non-cubes." - Gelatinous cubes are one of the many types of monsters in NetHackNetHackNetHack is a single-player roguelike video game originally released in 1987. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack , which is a descendant of Rogue...
and Ancient Domains of MysteryAncient Domains of MysteryAncient Domains of Mystery, or ADOM, is a roguelike game by Thomas Biskup first released in . The player's aim is to stop the forces of Chaos that invade the world of Ancardia....
. - The ASCII-based game MoriaMoria (computer game)Moria is a roguelike computer game based heavily on J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings. The game's objective is to kill a Balrog, presumably Durin's Bane, deep within the Mines of Moria. A later port of Moria called Umoria inspired the Angband roguelike game...
features a treasure rich gelatinous cube. - On the Giga Pets handheld games, Gelatinous cubes are one of the many food items.
- In the massively multiplayer online game DofusDofusDofus is a Flash based massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed and published by Ankama Games, a French computer game manufacturer. Originally released solely in French, it has since been translated into many other languages. It is primarily a Pay to Play game, though it still...
, the Jellies' Peninsula and Jellith Dimension are devoted to cube shaped Jelly monsters of various flavors and colors. - In one episode of the absurdist comic Bob the Angry FlowerBob the Angry FlowerBob the Angry Flower is a black-and-white comic strip that tells the exploits of an easily angered anthropomorphic flower named Bob and his interactions with the world, often in search of either global domination or love...
the title character's marketing pitch is nearly ruined by a gelatinous cube which repeatedly yells "Cube!" as it attempts to consume him. After this episode the author Stephen Notley received a number of messages from D&D players who had incorporated cubes which yelled "Cube!" into their games. - Gelatinous cubes occur in EverQuestEverQuestEverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost...
and EverQuest IIEverQuest IIEverQuest II is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Sony Online Entertainment , based on EverQuest, and shipped on 8 November 2004...
, both as monsters and house pets. - In the 1992 movie Wayne's WorldWayne's World (film)Wayne's World is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Penelope Spheeris and starring Mike Myers in his film debut as Wayne Campbell and Dana Carvey as Garth Algar, hosts of the Aurora, Illinois-based Public-access television cable TV show Wayne's World...
, arcade owner Noah Vanderhoff talks about a fictional game in which a gelatinous cube consumes villagers. - The Hordes of the Underdark expansion for Neverwinter NightsNeverwinter NightsNeverwinter Nights , produced by BioWare and published by Infogrames , is a third-person perspective computer role-playing game that is based on third edition Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms rules. It was originally to be published by Interplay Entertainment, but the publisher's financial...
included an ambush by a gelatinous cube while in the UnderdarkUnderdarkThe Underdark is a fictional setting which has appeared in Dungeons & Dragons role-playing campaigns and Dungeons & Dragons-based fiction books, including the Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore...
. - In the movie Futurama: Bender's GameFuturama: Bender's GameFuturama: Bender's Game is the third of the four direct-to-DVD Futurama films that make up the show's fifth season. It was released on November 4, 2008 on DVD and Blu-ray....
, while playing D&D Dwight Conrad states that the gelatinous cube dies in horrible poverty. - In the MMORPG RuneScapeRuneScapeRuneScape is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in January 2001 by Andrew and Paul Gower, and developed and published by Jagex Games Studio. It is a graphical browser game implemented on the client-side in Java, and incorporates 3D rendering...
there are so-called "Jellies" modeled after Gelatinous Cubes, though they are only knee-high. - Gelatinous cubes appear in the animated film Rocketmen Vs Robots.
- Adventure TimeAdventure TimeAdventure Time was a local children's television show on WTAE-TV 4 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1959 to 1975. It was hosted by the late Paul Shannon, with guitarist Joe Negri and puppeteer Jim Martin...
featured a gelatinous cube in the episode Dungeon. In the episode, Finn nearly gets stuck in said Gelatinous Cube while trying to obtain a key to a locked door shown within the creature. Several other Dungeons & Dragons monsters appear in the episode, such as a Displacer BeastDisplacer beastA displacer beast is a fictional creature from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.-Publication history:The displacer beast was inspired by the coeurl, a feline-like creature from the 1939 science fiction story "Black Destroyer" by A. E...
, a MimicMimic (Dungeons & Dragons)In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the mimic is a type of fictional monster for player characters to encounter. It is portrayed as being able to change its shape to disguise its body as an inanimate object, commonly a chest...
, and a ConstructConstruct (Dungeons & Dragons)Within the world of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, construct is a type of creature, or "creature type". Constructs are either animated objects, or any artificially constructed creature....
. - MinecraftMinecraftMinecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game written in Java originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang, formed from the proceeds of the game. It was released as an alpha on May 17, 2009, with a beta version on December 20, 2010...
added an ooze type enemy, known as slimes, that, due to the graphic style of the game are presented as cubes of different sizes. - The Genesis mod for Slaves to Armok IIDwarf FortressSlaves to Armok: God of Blood, Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress, also called Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress, but most commonly known simply as Dwarf Fortress, is a freeware computer game by Bay 12 Games for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X set in a high fantasy universe that combines aspects of...
adds a gelatinous cube that can be found underground and paralyzes nearby creatures.
External links
- Statistics for Gelatinous Cube
- The gelatinous cube in Neverwinter Nights